Payment milestones for improved financial health

ABSTRACT

The disclosed technology provides enhanced financial statements such as credit statements that provide customized payment options to a customer that takes into account the total amount owed by the customer, and past payments made by the customer. The customized payment options are determined with the goal of providing more payment options that encourage financial health, while not overwhelming the customer with too many options or irrelevant options. The customized payment options can be displayed in an interactive user interface for paying a credit statement that can visually inform a user of the benefit of the respective payment options with respect to the impact of the respective payment option on the customer&#39;s financial health—at least as it pertains to a credit account for which the statement was issued.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.16/827,202, filed Mar. 23, 2020, which claims priority to U.S.provisional application No. 62/822,924, filed on Mar. 24, 2019; whichare expressly incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present technology pertains to a technology for helping customersachieve improved financial health and more specifically pertains to atechnology for calculating payment milestones for a financial statementthat can help customers achieve improved financial health.

BACKGROUND

Typical financial statements are not designed with the best interests ofa customer in mind. Credit card statements, for example, typicallyprovide only required statement categories such as a minimum due, abalance from the previous statement, and the total amount owed.Unfortunately, listing these required statement categories gives somecustomers a false sense that there are no other options. Even if theymay realize they can pay any amount they desire, many customers don'thave the financial literacy or don't take the time, to be able to figureout a healthier option than paying the minimum. Some customers feel theyhave paid their bill when they pay the minimum amount due. Whereas, inreality, paying the minimum balance hurts the customer by accruinginterest charges. In some instances, the interest owed might be greaterthan the minimum amount due.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and otheradvantages and features of the disclosure can be obtained, a moreparticular description of the principles briefly described above will berendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which areillustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawingsdepict only exemplary embodiments of the disclosure and are not,therefore, to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the principlesherein are described and explained with additional specificity anddetail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system embodiment in accordance with someaspects of the present technology;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example user interface presenting paymentmilestones in accordance with some aspects of the present technology;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example method embodiment for preparing astatement including payment milestones in accordance with some aspectsof the present technology;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example method embodiment for determining a“payment plus smallest category” payment milestone in accordance withsome aspects of the present technology;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example method embodiment for determining a“payment plan” payment milestone in accordance with some aspects of thepresent technology;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example user interface presenting paymentmilestones in accordance with some aspects of the present technology;

FIG. 7 illustrates an example user interface presenting paymentmilestones in accordance with some aspects of the present technology;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example method embodiment for determining whichpayment milestones to display in a user interface in accordance withsome aspects of the present technology;

FIG. 9 illustrates an example user interface presenting paymentmilestones in accordance with some aspects of the present technology;

FIG. 10 illustrates an example user interface presenting paymentmilestones in accordance with some aspects of the present technology;and

FIG. 11 illustrates an example system embodiment in accordance with someaspects of the present technology.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

Various embodiments of the disclosure are discussed in detail below.While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understoodthat this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled inthe relevant art will recognize that other components and configurationsmay be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.

Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be set forthin the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from thedescription, or can be learned by practice of the herein disclosedprinciples. The features and advantages of the disclosure can berealized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinationsparticularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and otherfeatures of the disclosure will become more fully apparent from thefollowing description and appended claims or can be learned by thepractice of the principles set forth herein.

The disclosed technology addresses the need in the art for a technologythat can provide enhanced financial statements such as credit statementsthat provide customized payment options to a customer that takes intoaccount the total amount owed by the customer, and past payments made bythe customer. The customized payment options are determined with thegoal of providing more payment options that encourage financial health,while not overwhelming the customer with too many options or irrelevantoptions. The customized payment options can be displayed in aninteractive user interface for paying a credit statement that canvisually inform a user of the benefit of the respective payment optionswith respect to the impact of the respective payment option on thecustomer's financial health—at least as it pertains to a credit accountfor which the statement was issued.

As described herein, one aspect of the present technology is thegathering and use of data available from various sources to improvefinancial statements. The present disclosure contemplates that in someinstances, this gathered data may include personal information data thatuniquely identifies or can be used to contact or locate a specificperson. Such personal information data can include demographic data,location-based data, telephone numbers, email addresses, twitter ID's,home addresses, data or records relating to a user's health or level offitness (e.g., vital signs measurements, medication information,exercise information), date of birth, or any other identifying orpersonal information.

The present disclosure recognizes that the use of such personalinformation data, in the present technology, can be used to the benefitof users. For example, the personal information data can be used togenerate and deliver financial statements with customized paymentamounts that encourage better financial health of the customer.

The present disclosure contemplates that the entities responsible forthe collection, analysis, disclosure, transfer, storage, or other use ofsuch personal information data will comply with well-established privacypolicies and/or privacy practices. In particular, such entities shouldimplement and consistently use privacy policies and practices that aregenerally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmentalrequirements for maintaining personal information data private andsecure. Such policies should be easily accessible by users and should beupdated as the collection and/or use of data changes. Personalinformation from users should be collected for legitimate and reasonableuses of the entity and not shared or sold outside of those legitimateuses. Further, such collection/sharing should occur after receiving theinformed consent of the users. Additionally, such entities shouldconsider taking any needed steps for safeguarding and securing access tosuch personal information data and ensuring that others with access tothe personal information data adhere to their privacy policies andprocedures. Further, such entities can subject themselves to evaluationby third parties to certify their adherence to widely accepted privacypolicies and practices. In addition, policies and practices should beadapted for the particular types of personal information data beingcollected and/or accessed and adapted to applicable laws and standards,including jurisdiction-specific considerations. For instance, in the US,collection of or access to certain health data may be governed byfederal and/or state laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability andAccountability Act (HIPAA); whereas health data in other countries maybe subject to other regulations and policies and should be handledaccordingly. Hence different privacy practices should be maintained fordifferent personal data types in each country.

Despite the foregoing, the present disclosure also contemplatesembodiments in which users selectively block the use of, or access to,personal information data. That is, the present disclosure contemplatesthat hardware and/or software elements can be provided to prevent orblock access to such personal information data. For example, in the caseof customized payment options on financial statements, the presenttechnology can be configured to allow users to select to “opt-in” or“opt out” of participation in the collection of personal informationdata during registration for services or anytime thereafter. In additionto providing “opt-in” and “opt out” options, the present disclosurecontemplates providing notifications relating to the access or use ofpersonal information. For instance, a user may be notified upondownloading an app that their personal information data will be accessedand then reminded again just before personal information data isaccessed by the app.

Moreover, it is the intent of the present disclosure that personalinformation data should be managed and handled in a way to minimizerisks of unintentional or unauthorized access or use. Risk can beminimized by limiting the collection of data and deleting data once itis no longer needed. In addition, and when applicable, including incertain health-related applications, data de-identification can be usedto protect a user's privacy. De-identification may be facilitated, whenappropriate, by removing specific identifiers (e.g., date of birth,etc.), controlling the amount or specificity of data stored (e.g.,collecting location data a city level rather than at an address level),controlling how data is stored (e.g., aggregating data across users),and/or other methods.

Therefore, although the present disclosure broadly covers the use ofpersonal information data to implement one or more various disclosedembodiments, the present disclosure also contemplates that the variousembodiments can also be implemented without the need for accessing suchpersonal information data. That is, the various embodiments of thepresent technology are not rendered inoperable due to the lack of all ora portion of such personal information data. For example, customizedpayment options on financial statements can be generated by based onnon-personal information data or a bare minimum amount of personalinformation, such as the content being requested by the deviceassociated with a user, other non-personal information available to thefinancial statement server, or publicly available information.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system embodiment for providing enhancedfinancial statements, such as credit statements, that provide customizedpayment options to a customer. The system includes transaction network102 having a transactions database 104. Transaction network 102 caninclude a payment back-end architecture for processing and clearingpayments. For example, transaction network 102 can include a credit cardor debit card network, and a account provider that issued a credit/debitcard. Transactions database 104 stores at least information regardingtransactions associated with a customer's financial account and therespective dates on which the transactions occurred. In someembodiments, transactions database 104 also includes categoryinformation regarding the respective transactions. Each of thetransactions in transactions database 104 can be reported fromtransaction network 102.

In some embodiments, application 121 can maintain its own database oftransactions. In such embodiments, transaction network 102 can reportinformation about transactions as the transactions clear. In suchembodiments, application 121 can effectively have a copy of the data intransactions database 104 for the user account stored on computingdevice 115. In some embodiments, transactions database might only existon computing device 115.

In some embodiments, the transaction network 102 can provide informationregarding a transaction that includes information regarding a merchant,the date of a transaction, a category of the transaction or of themerchant (such as groceries, pharmacy, travel, entertainment, kids,pets, etc.) to be stored with transactions in transaction database 104.In some embodiments, payment milestone service 106 can enhance or modifythe information regarding the transaction received from the transactionnetwork 102 and store the enhanced or modified information in a localcopy of transactions database 104 stored on client device 115.

In some embodiments transaction network 102 can also be configured toprepare a statement for a user account. A statement can include one ormore webpages or app pages for displaying a listing of transactions thathave taken place during a statement period for a particular customer'saccount and can provide payment options. In some embodiments transactionnetwork 102 can be configured to send information about transactions toapplication 121, which can create a statement using statement service123. While conventional statements may only provide informationregarding a limited number of balance summaries that are notparticularly helpful to a customer in deciding how to maintain or managethe account, the present technology provides payment milestones thathelp a customer know how to better maintain and manage the account andachieve improved financial health.

Payment milestone service 106 can be used to calculate a plurality ofpayment milestones based on account specific information including totalbalance information, the amount paid during the previous statementperiod, total spent per category of transaction, etc. Payment milestoneservice 106 can further determine which of these payment milestonesshould be provided on a transaction statement to the customer.

A customer can view the transaction statement of the present technologyusing a computing device such as computing device 115 having application121 executing thereon. Application 121 can include statement service123, which can receive a statement for a customer account associatedwith a user of computing device 115 from transaction network 102, or canreceive information regarding transactions during a statement periodfrom transaction database 104 (whether stored on transaction network102, or computing device 115) and create a statement for the customeraccount.

Statement service 123 can interact with payment milestone service 106 toenhance a conventional statement. In some embodiments, statement servicecan enhance a statement received from transactions network 102 withpayment milestones. In some embodiments, such as when statement service123 prepares a statement, statement service 123 can utilize paymentmilestone service 106 to determine milestones for statement service 123to include in a statement.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example graphical user interface 200 for inclusionon the statement created by the present technology. As illustrated inFIG. 2 , graphical user interface 200 includes the typically requiredstatement categories of a total balance, a minimum payment, and laststatement balance, but in addition, also includes helpful paymentmilestones including a payment plan milestone and a new purchasesmilestone. These milestones and other payment milestones will bediscussed in greater detail herein.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example method embodiment for preparing astatement including payment milestones. Payment milestone service 106can analyze (302) at least a collection of transactions stored intransactions database 104 and a carried balance for statement period fora customer account associated with a user of computing device 115. Fromthe collection of transactions and other information associated with thecustomer account, payment milestone service 106 can determine (304) aplurality of payment milestones for potential inclusion on a statement.

After payment milestone service 106 has determined (304) the pluralityof payment milestones, payment milestone service 106 can select (306) asubset of the plurality of payment milestones for inclusion on thestatement, and can prepare (308) the statement for the statement periodthat includes the selected (306) plurality of payment milestones inaddition to the required statement categories (total balance, minimumpayment, and last statement balance).

Payment milestone service 106 selects (306) a subset of the plurality ofpayment milestones in order to present a useful amount of information tothe customer. While there may be any number of ways and rationales tocalculate payment milestones, they will only be useful if the paymentmilestones are both distinguishable from each other and they providemeaningful recommendations that are within the customer's financialability to select. Therefore payment milestone service 106 selects (306)a subset of the plurality of payment milestones to meet the objectives.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example method embodiment for determining a “lastpayment plus smallest category” milestone. As the name of the milestoneimplies, the milestone is defined by the summation of all payments madeduring the last statement period plus the value of all transactionsassociated with a smallest category of transactions from the presentstatement period.

Specifically, payment milestone service 106 can determine (322) a “lastpayment” milestone by combining all of the payments made during theprevious statement period. Payment milestone service 106 can thenanalyze (324) categories associated with the collection of transactionsin the statement period to identify (326) a smallest category from thecategories associated with the collection of transactions. The total ofall transactions associated with the smallest category is less than atotal of all transactions associated with any other analyzed category.Payment milestone service 106 can then determine (328) the “last paymentplus smallest category” milestone by combining the “last payment”milestone with the total of all transactions associated with thesmallest category of transactions.

The “last payment” milestone can be useful to include on statements whena customer is trying to pay down their statement balance and at the sametime is trying to spend less. It has been observed that sometimes when acustomer spends less, they use their behavior of spending less as alicense to also pay less toward their statement balance which in realitydelays or prevents the customer's ability to pay down the statementbalance. Therefore the “last payment” milestone can be used to encouragea customer to continue to make payments at least as large as the paymentthey made in response to a previous statement. In some embodiments,payment milestone service 106 will not select any payment milestones forinclusion on the statement that are less than the “last payment”milestone.

The “last payment plus smallest category” milestone can be useful toinclude on the statement when a customer's balance is growing. Thismilestone can be presented to encourage a customer to both pay a smallamount more than the amount they paid in response to the previousstatement, but also encourage the reduction in spending by subtlysuggesting that they may be able to do without purchases in thissmallest category.

In some embodiments, a reference to a previous statement refers to astatement from an immediately previous statement period. However, insome embodiments, a reference to a previous statement can refer tostatements from one or more previous statement periods, such asstatements from statement periods taking place in the last three months.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example method for determining a “payment plan”milestone. Depending on the total credit utilization percentage for thecustomer's account, payment milestone service 106 can customize apayment plan for the user account to pay off the total statement balancein one of three time periods. Each customer account typically isassociated with a maximum credit limit, and the amount of credit usedcan be referred to as the utilization of the credit limit. The maximumcredit limit for a given customer account is typically specific to thecustomer and is based on the credit issuer's evaluation of thecustomer's creditworthiness. Therefore rather than use a fixed dollaramount the present technology looks to a percentage utilization of thecredit limit to approximate how long a customer might need to reasonablypay off the total statement balance. For example, if a customer's creditutilization is less than 33% of the credit limit then payment milestoneservice 106 can determine a payment plan to pay off the total statementbalance within three months. If a customer's credit utilization isgreater than 67% of the credit limit, payment milestone service 106 candetermine a payment plan to pay off the total statement balance withinnine months. And, if a customer's credit utilization is between 34% and66% of the credit limit, payment milestone service 106 can determine apayment plan to pay off the total statement balance within six months.

It will be appreciated that payment milestone service can also use othermechanisms to determine how long of a payment period is appropriate fora payment plan. For example, payment milestone service can determinethat payments over a determined amount should be avoided, and thereforea payment plan might require an increased term in order to keep paymentsunder the determined amount.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example method for determining a “payment plan”milestone based on the customer's current credit utilization. Paymentmilestone service 106 first determines (342) whether a payment plan waspreviously calculated and selected to pay a previous statement. Assuminga payment plan has not previously been selected by the customer, paymentmilestone service 106 can determine (344) the current credit utilizationof the credit line. If the determined (344) current utilization of thecredit line is greater than a first threshold (346) then paymentmilestone service 106 can determine (348) a payment plan to pay off thetotal statement balance in a first period of time. For example, if thecredit utilization is greater then the threshold of 66%, the paymentmilestone service 106 can determine a payment plan to pay off the totalstatement balance in nine months.

When the current credit utilization is not greater than the firstthreshold (346) then payment milestone service 106 can determine if thecredit utilization is less than a second threshold (350). If the creditutilization is less than the second threshold (350) payment milestoneservice 106 can determine (352) a payment plan to pay off the totalstatement balance in a second time period. For example, if the creditutilization is less than 34%, then payment milestone service 106 candetermine (352) a payment plan to pay off the total statement balance inthree months.

When the credit utilization is neither greater than the first threshold(346) nor less than the second threshold (350) then payment milestoneservice 106 can determine (354) a payment plan to pay off the totalstatement balance in a third time period. For example, if the creditutilization is between 34% and 66% (i.e., not greater than the firstthreshold 66%, and not less than the second threshold 34%) then paymentmilestone service 106 can determine (354) a payment plan to pay off thetotal statement balance in six months.

When the determined payment plan has been presented to the customer instatement service 123 of application 121 and has been selected, paymentmilestone service 106 must record the selection of the payment plan sothat future statements can continue to present the selected payment planwith adjustments reflecting how many months have passed since thepayment plan was initially selected. For example, if the customer hasselected a six-month payment plan in January a statement in Februaryshould reflect five months remaining on the payment plan. Likewise, thestatement in March should reflect four months remaining on the paymentplan, and so forth. Accordingly, and returning to step 342, paymentmilestone service 106 can determine (342) whether a payment plan wasselected to pay a previous statement. If the customer selected a paymentplan to pay a previous statement then payment milestone service 106 candetermine (356) a payment plan to pay off the total statement balance inone month less than the number of months presented on the immediatelyprevious statement.

In this embodiment, the selection of a milestone in one month affectswhat a customer will see in the next month since the selection of apayment plan in a first month will cause presentation of the samepayment plan continued in the second month.

While the number of months remaining in the payment plan has continuityfrom one statement to the next, the payments for the payment plan mightvary from month-to-month since the credit line is active. For example ifa user selects a three-month payment plan to pay off a balance of $750that includes $150 of new spending in the current statement period and$600 of carried balance from a the previous statement, the payment planwould call for a payment of $350 ($200 to pay off the carried balance in3 months, plus the $150 from the current statement period) in the firstmonth of the payment plan. The payment plan might call for the user tomake a payment of $300 in the second month assuming the customerutilized an additional $100 of credit in new transactions during thestatement period ($200 to pay off the carried balance in 3 months, plusthe $100 from the current statement period). Finally, the payment planmight call for the user to make a payment of $365 in the third monthassuming the customer utilized an additional $165 of credit in newtransactions during the statement period ($200 to pay off the carriedbalance in 3 months, plus the $165 from the current statement period).

In some embodiments, the payment milestone service 106 can take intoaccount the average amount of new transactions made by the customer eachmonth when making a payment plan in an attempt to yield more equalpayments. For example assuming the customer started with a balance of$600 and the customer makes on average $140 in new transactions eachpayment period, payment milestone service 106 can determine that makinga payments of approximately $340 (excluding interest calculations) islikely to yield approximately even payments over a three month paymentplan as opposed to payments of $350 in the first month $300 in thesecond month and $365 in the third month which would be the approximateamounts if the payment milestone service merely reacted to a newtransactions each month instead of anticipating them.

Of course, while an average amount of new transactions each month can beanticipated, payment milestone service 106 will need to react to somedegree to the actual amount of new transactions in any statement period.

In some embodiments, payment milestone service 106 can recommend to acustomer to discontinue a payment plan when the actual amount of newtransactions in a particular month represents a large deviation from theanticipated average amount of new transactions (e.g., the actual amountof new transactions is greater than the anticipated average amount ofnew transactions by a determined percentage, or deviation, or the creditutilization on the account has jumped a threshold (was less than 33% andnow credit utilization is greater, or was less than 66% and now creditutilization is greater). This embodiment might occur if the customermakes an unusual, large, purchase with only a few months left to go onthe payment plan. Instead, payment milestone service 106 can recommend anew payment plan to help the customer pay off the large purchase.

Regardless of whether an existing payment plan is in progress, paymentmilestone service 106 can identify a large single purchase in the recenttransaction history to choose a portion to revolve by suggesting thecustomer pay for their “regular purchases” plus a third of the largepurchase.

Payment milestone service 106 can also use machine learning to evaluatethe customer's transaction history to predict likely future month spendand base the payments of a payment plan on the current balance combinedwith the predicted likely future month spend.

Payment milestone service 106 can also determine seasonal spendingvariations and adjust milestone recommendations or payment plans tosmooth over expected peaks in spending. For example, payment milestoneservice 106 can predict that spending is headed up and can raise earlierpayments to reduce risk of failure once the increased spending hits itspeak.

Payment milestone service 106 can also determine that a customer has ahistory of large payments at specific times of year, and can create aplan to pay an amount each month, along with a greater amount with theirtax return to help get the large payments paid off.

Payment milestone service 106 can also use machine learning to generatepayment plans based on various periods by optimizing for the likelihoodof the customer selecting the initial payment amount.

Payment milestone service 106 can use machine learning to generate plansbased on various periods and variable payment amounts by optimizing forthe likelihood of the customer completing the entire payment plan.

In some embodiments, payment plans can be created by payment milestoneservice 106 that get customer to a lower utilization level (but not zerodebt) as a stepping stone toward getting debt free.

In some embodiments, payment plans can be created by payment milestoneservice 106 in relation to the real calendar (e.g., pay off debt bysummer, pay off debt before school starts, reduce your debt by half byyour birthday, etc.)

In some embodiments, payment milestone service 106 can review thecustomer's payment history to predict the highest amount they cansustainably afford to pay off their debt as quick as possible.

In addition to the payment milestone addressed above, other milestonescan include a minimum balance plus cash rewards milestone and a defaultmilestone, etc. In some embodiments, any milestone can be increased bythe amount of a cash rewards milestone. Use of the account can beaccompanied by a cash back reward. This reward could be used to pay offaccount balances. As a way of encouraging better fiscal health, amilestone, such as the minimum balance payment can be increased by anamount of cash back earned during the statement period. A defaultmilestone could be an average of a minimum amount due and the totalaccount balance. Such a default milestone could be useful especiallywhen an account is new and more sophisticated milestones are not able tobe calculated.

FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 illustrates example graphical user interfaces 200 and230 for presenting payment milestones along with required statementcategories. The presented payment options (milestones and requiredstatement categories) are organized in order from least payment amountto the greatest payment amount. For example, FIG. 6 illustrates thefirst payment option 204 for the required statement category, minimumpayment. This is followed by a second payment option 206 for the paymentmilestone “payment last period.” This is followed by a third paymentoption 208 for the payment milestone “payment last period plus smallestcategory.” The next payment option 210 is for the required statementcategory, last statement balance. The next payment option 212 is for thepayment plan milestone. This is followed by the payment option 214 forthe payment plan milestone “new purchases since last statement.” Thefinal payment option 216 is the required statement category, totalbalance.

While FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 show a plurality of payment milestones, itshould be appreciated by those ordinary skill in the art that more orless or different payment milestones can be presented. Additionally, itshould be appreciated that the order of the payment options can changedepending on the values associated with each payment option. In someembodiments, the payment options should be listed in substantially theorder of increasing or decreasing value. In some embodiments, thepayment options should be listed in order of a most recommended paymentoption to least recommended payment option. For example while thepayment option to pay off the total balance might be best for financialhealth a most recommended option could be an option that balances thelikelihood that a user can realistically accept the option with thedesire to promote the best options for financial health (i.e., theoptions for paying off the greatest balance, or at least minimizinginterest charges).

As illustrated in FIG. 6 and in FIG. 7 too many payment milestones andrequired statement categories make the interface is crowded, and someoptions do not present any meaningful difference from other options.

In order to increase the value of the options presented in userinterfaces 202 and 230, FIG. 8 illustrates an example method forselecting a subset of payment milestones to be included in the userinterface. For example payment milestone service 106 can discard (402)any payment milestone that is less than an amount paid on a previousstatement. The previous statement can be the immediately previousstatement or a previous statement that happened in a recent previoustransaction period.

Further payment milestone service 106 can discard (404) all but onepayment option having a similar amount. For example, if several paymentoptions are within 10% of the total balance of each other one or moreoptions should be rejected. For example payment option 206 and option208 illustrated in FIG. 6 and in FIG. 7 are for substantially similaramounts, and one of these options should be discarded. In someembodiments, when payment milestone service 106 is selecting between twopayment milestones that are too similar, payment milestone service 106can select the payment milestone that provides the greatest financialhealth.

In some embodiments, when payment milestone service considers paymentoptions that include a required statement category and a paymentmilestone, payment milestone service 106 should select the requiredstatement category.

In some embodiments, when payment milestone service 106 is consideringthree or more payment options, payment milestone service 106 canoptimize to present the greatest number of payment milestones. Forexample, if there are three payment milestones that are each 6% greaterthan the immediately preceding payment milestone, payment milestoneservice 106 can discard the middle payment milestone to preserve theleast and the greatest of the three payment milestones.

In some embodiments, payment milestone service 106 can further select(406) a lowest two of the payment milestones, in order to not presentthe customer with more than five payment options (when includingrequired statement categories).

While FIG. 8 illustrates an example method for reducing the number ofpayment options displayed, it should be appreciated by those of ordinaryskill in the art that other logic can be used to reduce the number ofpayment categories.

FIG. 9 illustrates user interface 230 with several payment optionsremoved (relative to user interface 230 illustrated in FIG. 6 ) inaccordance with the embodiment disclosed with respect to the method inFIG. 8 . For example, in FIG. 6 payment option 206 and payment option208 are substantially similar, and therefore in FIG. 9 only paymentoption 208 is presented. Additionally, payment option 214 was discardedsince it was not one of the least two payment options.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example animation of a statement user interfacein accordance with the present technology. When a customer first viewsthe statement, user interface 502 can be displayed showing a defaultselection to pay the total balance along with a star icon which isintended to provide positive reinforcement for this option. The customercan then provide inputs into statement service 123 of application 121 toselect other payment options, and the user interface in FIG. 10 willanimate to adjust to the selected option. For example, when the optionrepresented in user interface 504 is selected, the user interface willanimate to that option which reflects the total amount of new purchasesmade in the last statement period and is coupled with positivereinforcement of a checkmark. The option represented in 506 represents a“payment plan” milestone option. The option represented in 508 is a“last payment” milestone option. Both options represented in userinterface 506 and user interface 508 are represented with neutralreinforcement. Finally, user interface 510 presents the requiredstatement category of the minimum balance due along with negativereinforcement.

In some embodiments, payment milestone service 106 can rememberpreviously presented payment milestone categories and default topresenting the same payment milestone categories for the subsequentstatement period. Notwithstanding the method illustrated in FIG. 8 , insome embodiments, it may be seen as preferable to provide consistencyfrom statement-to-statement. Providing such consistency may bebeneficial especially when a customer is making choices that areconsidered helpful for their financial health whereas payment milestoneoptions might be changed from one statement to another statement whenthe customer is making choices that are considered neutral or harmfulfor their financial health.

In some embodiments, payment milestone service 106 can analyze acustomer's statement history and past selected payment options andcategorize a customer to buckets of financial health or apparentfinancial literacy or apparent financial means and can present optionson the basis of such categorization. For example, a customercharacterized as having greater financial means, or greater financialhealth might be presented with higher payment values designed tomaintain the customer's financial help. Whereas a customer characterizedas having less financial health and be provided with lesser paymentoptions to initially encourage the customer to pay a little more thanthey are accustomed, and the payment options can slowly increase eachmonth.

In some embodiments, payment milestone service 106 can utilize machinelearning to rank the desirability of presenting various paymentmilestones based on the likelihood that the payment milestones ifselected, will result in increased financial health for the customer.For example, a machine learning algorithm could cluster customers basedon various account characteristics to identify similar customers and foreach cluster would analyze the payment option selected by each customerto determine which payment options yielded the best financial healthoutcomes over time in the group of similar customers.

Thereafter the machine learning algorithm can be used to predict whichpayment options will yield the best financial health outcomes based onthe ability of the machine learning algorithm to characterize acustomer. This approach should ensure that payment milestone service 106is surfacing the recommended milestones that are most likely to lead toa positive change for the user.

While the present technology has primarily been discussed in the contextof a credit statement, and specifically a line of credit or credit cardstatement, the present invention is applicable to all financialstatements. For example, financial statements pertaining to investmentaccounts are equally confusing to credit card statements (or more so),and the present technology can be used to provide options to a customerto decide how much to save or invest in a given month and can take intoaccount tax consequences and interest benefits from such decisions.

In some embodiments, the present technology can take into account avariety of financial statements including bank account statements,credit statements, and investment statements, and can provide aninterface to help a user achieve greater financial health in a moreholistic manner by taking into account monthly income, savings andinvestment opportunities, and debit payment opportunities. Theinterfaces discussed herein can be coordinated across each statement, ora single interface allocating money for savings, investment, and debtcan be provided.

In some embodiments, a payment plan can be triggered in the middle of astatement period. Payment milestone service 106 can detect an abnormallylarge transaction in transactions database 104, and can send anotification to computing device 115. When the customer views thenotification, payment milestone service 106 can recommend a payment planfor the abnormally large purchase.

In some embodiments, statements, and the payment milestones presentedtherewith can be dynamic. Usually financial statements are static as ofthe day the statement period closed. The present technology candynamically update based on the most current information, and paymentmilestones can also dynamically adjust to account for new charges andnew payments. In some embodiments, only the payment milestones areadjustable and the required statement categories might be static.

In some embodiments described herein, payment milestone service 106 hasutilized information regarding previously selected payment options. Insome embodiments, payment milestone service 106 can record previouslyselected payment options on computing device 115 for later reference.

In some embodiments, the present technology can provide incentives andrewards for healthy fiscal behavior. For example, the present technologycan present a message offering a reduced interest rate on a balance aslong as the user sticks to the payment plan addressed above. Similarly,the present technology could set goals for a user and add incentives toencourage the user to hit the incentives. In some embodiments, machinelearning can be utilized to determine user accounts to be offered anincentive or reward, and to determine when to present an incentive.

In some embodiments, the present technology can also congratulate userson good fiscal decisions. The present technology can record that a userhas paid enough each month for several months to begin to reduce anycarried balance. In some embodiments, the technology can be adaptive andcan recognize that a user usually pays the minimum balance but is nowpaying more for several months in a row. The present technology cancongratulate or reward such a user.

While payment milestone service 106 is illustrated as being part ofapplication 121, in some embodiments, it can be its own service runningon computing device 115 that is utilized by application 121 or otherapplications. In some embodiments, the present technology is madeavailable as an application program interface (API) to other servicesbeyond statement service 123. Any financial account provider applicationon computing device 115 can access the API to the payment milestoneservice 106 to receive payment milestones and present a more helpful andintuitive statement interface.

FIG. 11 shows an example of computing system 600, which can be forexample any computing device making up transaction network 102 orcomputing device 115 or any component thereof in which the components ofthe system are in communication with each other using connection 605.Connection 605 can be a physical connection via a bus, or a directconnection into processor 610, such as in a chipset architecture.Connection 605 can also be a virtual connection, networked connection,or logical connection.

In some embodiments, computing system 600 is a distributed system inwhich the functions described in this disclosure can be distributedwithin a datacenter, multiple datacenters, a peer network, etc. In someembodiments, one or more of the described system components representsmany such components each performing some or all of the function forwhich the component is described. In some embodiments, the componentscan be physical or virtual devices.

Example system 600 includes at least one processing unit (CPU orprocessor) 610 and connection 605 that couples various system componentsincluding system memory 615, such as read-only memory (ROM) 620 andrandom access memory (RAM) 625 to processor 610. Computing system 600can include a cache of high-speed memory 612 connected directly with, inclose proximity to, or integrated as part of processor 610.

Processor 610 can include any general purpose processor and a hardwareservice or software service, such as services 632, 634, and 636 storedin storage device 630, configured to control processor 610 as well as aspecial-purpose processor where software instructions are incorporatedinto the actual processor design. Processor 610 may essentially be acompletely self-contained computing system, containing multiple cores orprocessors, a bus, memory controller, cache, etc. A multi-core processormay be symmetric or asymmetric.

To enable user interaction, computing system 600 includes an inputdevice 645, which can represent any number of input mechanisms, such asa microphone for speech, a touch-sensitive screen for gesture orgraphical input, keyboard, mouse, motion input, speech, etc. Computingsystem 600 can also include output device 635, which can be one or moreof a number of output mechanisms known to those of skill in the art. Insome instances, multimodal systems can enable a user to provide multipletypes of input/output to communicate with computing system 600.Computing system 600 can include communications interface 640, which cangenerally govern and manage the user input and system output. There isno restriction on operating on any particular hardware arrangement, andtherefore the basic features here may easily be substituted for improvedhardware or firmware arrangements as they are developed.

Storage device 630 can be a non-volatile memory device and can be a harddisk or other types of computer readable media which can store data thatare accessible by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memorycards, solid state memory devices, digital versatile disks, cartridges,random access memories (RAMs), read-only memory (ROM), and/or somecombination of these devices.

The storage device 630 can include software services, servers, services,etc., that when the code that defines such software is executed by theprocessor 610, it causes the system to perform a function. In someembodiments, a hardware service that performs a particular function caninclude the software component stored in a computer-readable medium inconnection with the necessary hardware components, such as processor610, connection 605, output device 635, etc., to carry out the function.

For clarity of explanation, in some instances, the present technologymay be presented as including individual functional blocks includingfunctional blocks comprising devices, device components, steps orroutines in a method embodied in software, or combinations of hardwareand software.

Any of the steps, operations, functions, or processes described hereinmay be performed or implemented by a combination of hardware andsoftware services or services, alone or in combination with otherdevices. In some embodiments, a service can be software that resides inmemory of a client device and/or one or more servers of a contentmanagement system and perform one or more functions when a processorexecutes the software associated with the service. In some embodiments,a service is a program or a collection of programs that carry out aspecific function. In some embodiments, a service can be considered aserver. The memory can be a non-transitory computer-readable medium.

In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage devices, mediums, andmemories can include a cable or wireless signal containing a bit streamand the like. However, when mentioned, non-transitory computer-readablestorage media expressly exclude media such as energy, carrier signals,electromagnetic waves, and signals per se.

Methods according to the above-described examples can be implementedusing computer-executable instructions that are stored or otherwiseavailable from computer-readable media. Such instructions can comprise,for example, instructions and data which cause or otherwise configure ageneral purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purposeprocessing device to perform a certain function or group of functions.Portions of computer resources used can be accessible over a network.The executable computer instructions may be, for example, binaries,intermediate format instructions such as assembly language, firmware, orsource code. Examples of computer-readable media that may be used tostore instructions, information used, and/or information created duringmethods according to described examples include magnetic or opticaldisks, solid-state memory devices, flash memory, USB devices providedwith non-volatile memory, networked storage devices, and so on.

Devices implementing methods according to these disclosures can comprisehardware, firmware and/or software, and can take any of a variety ofform factors. Typical examples of such form factors include servers,laptops, smart phones, small form factor personal computers, personaldigital assistants, and so on. The functionality described herein alsocan be embodied in peripherals or add-in cards. Such functionality canalso be implemented on a circuit board among different chips ordifferent processes executing in a single device, by way of furtherexample.

The instructions, media for conveying such instructions, computingresources for executing them, and other structures for supporting suchcomputing resources are means for providing the functions described inthese disclosures.

Although a variety of examples and other information was used to explainaspects within the scope of the appended claims, no limitation of theclaims should be implied based on particular features or arrangements insuch examples, as one of ordinary skill would be able to use theseexamples to derive a wide variety of implementations. Further andalthough some subject matter may have been described in languagespecific to examples of structural features and/or method steps, it isto be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claimsis not necessarily limited to these described features or acts. Forexample, such functionality can be distributed differently or performedin components other than those identified herein. Rather, the describedfeatures and steps are disclosed as examples of components of systemsand methods within the scope of the appended claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A computer-readable medium comprisingcomputer-executable instructions stored thereon, when executed thecomputer-executable instructions are effective to cause a computingsystem to perform operations comprising: analyzing a collection oftransactions and a carried balance for a statement period; determining aplurality of payment milestones, wherein one of the plurality of paymentmilestones is a last payment milestone; discarding a payment milestoneof the plurality of payment milestones that is less than an amount paidon a previous statement; selecting a subset of the plurality of paymentmilestones remaining after discarding the payment milestone that is lessthan the amount paid on a previous statement; and presenting the subsetof the plurality of payment milestones.
 2. The computer-readable mediumof claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise: determining a newpurchases milestone by totaling all new purchases made during thestatement period, the new purchases milestone being one of the pluralityof payment milestones.
 3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1,wherein the operations further comprise: determining a currentutilization of a credit line; when the current utilization of the creditline is greater than a first threshold, determining a payment plan topay off a total statement balance in a first time period; and when thecurrent utilization of the credit line is less than a second threshold,determining a payment plan to pay off the total statement balance in asecond time period, wherein the determined payment plan is a paymentplan milestone that is one of the plurality of payment milestones. 4.The computer-readable medium of claim 3, wherein when the payment planmilestone was selected to pay a previous statement, the payment planmilestone for the statement is a payment plan to pay off the totalstatement balance in one month less than the number of months presentedon the previous statement.
 5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1,wherein selecting the subset of the plurality of payment milestones areeffective to cause the computing system to: select a lowest two of thepayment milestones.
 6. The computer-readable medium of claim 5, whereinselecting the subset of the plurality of payment milestones areeffective to cause the computing system to: prior to selecting thelowest two of the payment milestones, discard the payment milestone thatis less than the amount paid on the previous statement.
 7. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein selecting the subset of theplurality of payment milestones are effective to cause the computingsystem to: prior to selecting the lowest two of the payment milestones,and when any of the payment milestones are less than a thresholddifference in amount, discard all but one of the payment milestones thatare less than the threshold difference in amount.
 8. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the operations furthercomprise preparing a statement for the statement period, the statementcomprising the subset of the plurality of payment milestones and one ormore required statement categories.
 9. A method, comprising: analyzing,by a computing device, a collection of transactions and a carriedbalance for a statement period; determining, by the computing device, aplurality of payment milestones, wherein one of the plurality of paymentmilestones is a last payment milestone; discarding, by the computingdevice, any payment milestone of the plurality of payment milestonesthat is less than an amount paid on a previous statement; selecting, bythe computing device, a subset of the plurality of payment milestonesremaining after discarding the payment milestone that is less than theamount paid on a previous statement; and presenting the subset of theplurality of payment milestones.
 10. The method of claim 9, furthercomprising: determining, by the computing device, the last paymentmilestone by combining all of the payments made during a previousstatement period, the last payment milestone being one of the pluralityof payment milestones.
 11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:determining, by the computing device, the last payment milestone bycombining all of the payments made during a previous statement period;analyzing, by the computing device, categories associated with thecollection of transactions for the statement period; identifying, by thecomputing device, a smallest category from the categories associatedwith the collection of transactions, wherein a total of all transactionsassociated with the smallest category is less than a total of alltransactions associated with any other of the analyzed categories; anddetermining, by the computing device, the last payment plus smallestcategory milestone by combining the last payment milestone with thetotal of all of the transactions associated with the smallest category,the last payment plus smallest category milestone being one of theplurality of payment milestones.
 12. The method of claim 9, furthercomprising: determining, by the computing device, a new purchasesmilestone by totaling all new purchases made during the statementperiod, the new purchases milestone being one of the plurality ofpayment milestones.
 13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:determining, by the computing device, a current utilization of a creditline; when the current utilization of the credit line is greater than afirst threshold, determining a payment plan to pay off a total statementbalance in a first time period; and when the current utilization of thecredit line is less than a second threshold, determining a payment planto pay off the total statement balance in a second time period, whereinthe determined payment plan is a payment plan milestone that is one ofthe plurality of payment milestones.
 14. The method of claim 13, whereinwhen the payment plan milestone was selected to pay a previousstatement, the payment plan milestone for the statement is a paymentplan to pay off the total statement balance in one month less than thenumber of months presented on the previous statement.
 15. The method ofclaim 9, further comprising: selecting, by the computing device, alowest two of the payment milestones.
 16. The method of claim 15,wherein the selection of the subset of the plurality of paymentmilestones further comprises: prior to selecting the lowest two of thepayment milestones, and when any of the payment milestones are less thana threshold difference in amount, discard all but one of the paymentmilestones that are less than the threshold difference in amount.
 17. Acomputing system, comprising: a memory configured to storecomputer-executable instructions; and at least one processor configuredto execute the computer-executable instructions to cause the computingsystem to at least: analyze a collection of transactions and a carriedbalance for a statement period; determine a plurality of paymentmilestones, wherein one of the plurality of payment milestones is a lastpayment milestone; discard a payment milestone of the plurality ofpayment milestones that is less than an amount paid on a previousstatement; select a subset of the plurality of payment milestonesremaining after discarding the payment milestone that is less than theamount paid on a previous statement; and present the subset of theplurality of payment milestones.
 18. The computing system of claim 17,wherein the computing system is further caused to at least: determine acurrent utilization of a credit line; when the current utilization ofthe credit line is greater than a first threshold, determine a paymentplan to pay off a total statement balance in a first time period; andwhen the current utilization of the credit line is less than a secondthreshold, determine a payment plan to pay off the total statementbalance in a second time period, wherein the determined payment plan isa payment plan milestone that is one of the plurality of paymentmilestones.
 19. The computing system of claim 18, wherein when a paymentplan milestone was selected to pay a previous statement, the paymentplan milestone for the statement is a payment plan to pay off the totalstatement balance in one month less than the number of months presentedon the previous statement.
 20. The computing system of claim 18, whereinthe computing system is further caused to at least determine a newpurchases milestone by totaling all new purchases made during thestatement period, the new purchases milestone being one of the pluralityof payment milestones.